May 20th, 2006

I ran to the Food Lion on Avent Ferry at around 1:00 to pick up some items for the picnic this afternoon, the most important items being two cases of bottled water, and two large bags of ice.

Robert and I headed over to Pullen Park at right about 3:00, and found E-Ching and David already there, as well as Will and Myra, I believe it was.

We were excited to find electricity, in the form of an on/off switch in one plastic case, with a two-outlet socket in another plastic case right above it. However, turning the switch to "on," and plugging my Bose Dockstation into the outlet resulted in nothing. Evidently, juice is extra. Bastards.

We had a small, but fun gathering, at one point in the day reaching a total of 12 people, which was a nice even number for our game of Catch Phrase. That was fun.

At one point, this person dressed in a Catholic Monsignor's black robe strolled around our area.

While still a ways a way from us we heard him say, "There are plenty of girls here, where are the boys," which was kind of an odd thing to say seeing how David, Wilkes, and Will were tossing a Frisbee right in front of him.

Making his way around, when he walked by our shelter, he looked over, waved and said, "Peace."

We all thought the whole thing was disturbingly suspicious. I mean a "priest," this day and age, walking around in a public park loaded with little kids, and asking where the boys are? Come on.

Lea Ann, who is very familiar with the local Catholic church and its hierarchy said: 1) she didn't recognize him as one of the Monsignors, and 2) that no Monseigneur would be wearing that outfit outside of the church or a formal church event.

We had a nice spread consisting of hamburgers, hot dogs and bratwursts -- thanks to David and Kelly, who did most of the cooking, and to anyone else who helped in the process. Lee Ann brought some "award-winning" deviled eggs, made by her husband who didn't attend, and everyone else brought a nice complement of things to contribute to the final buffet.

At one point after dinner, we all took a stroll around the park -- down by the Carousel, the train, the paddle boats, and the "Andy Griffith Monument." After that, we played some fun rounds of Catch Phrase.

All-in-all, it was a nice gathering that included good people, good food, and perfect weather.

Here's a group shot of just the STC folks (i.e., not their guests) hovering around Andy and Opie.

Robert and I stopped home long enough to put things away, and change clothes before heading out to Flex for dance night.

It was such a fun night! We had lots of dancers there for a Saturday, and then Courtney and Wilkes joined us, and later Kelly, her partner Amber, and two of their Lesbian friends.

Once we got past the drama for Kelly and Amber at the door, which included Larry coming to get me off the dance floor to confirm their relationship to me as friends and guests, we had lots of drinks and fun.

Not unexpectedly, people were all about Wilkes. Tony was all over it. Shawn was totally into it. This huge guy came up behind him to check out his ass.

Wilkes was an absolute trooper about it, which I have found to be the case when someone is secure in their own sexuality. He took the attention as it's meant to be -- a compliment. I appreciated that in him.

Later, Robert was trying to think of what would be an equivalent experience -- perhaps a good-looking gay guy going to a straight bar, and having the women fawn all over him.

The fan was a "big big" problem tonight, squealing like a tortured pig. [av8rdude, check with your vet friend, and make sure pigs do squeal when they get tortured, please.]

I danced a lot of two-steps tonight, including with Robert, Courtney, Kelly, Adam, and Rick.

I feel like I cut Robert's night short, but did offer to come back and get him later in the evening. My stomach was a little upset, and I desperately wanted to get out of there before the porn star did whatever he was going to do there.

As is typical, at about 20 till midnight (at which time he was going to "perform"), someone on the mic said, "You all ready to see tonight's star?" As more typical, the response was a definite "thud." Then we're berated for an unenthusiastic response.

I was determined to get out of their before hearing the, predictable, once he starts performing, "You bitches go out there and tip him."

If you haven't already taken it, I would be very grateful if you'd take this less-than-three-minute (I hope) survey! I'm running it for a week, so if you can't get to it this moment, and visit again in the next week, please take it then.